Laws in Oregon are volatile. They change a lot, and there is always a lot of chatter about what is happening, most of it half-truths at best. Most recently there has been a lot of discussion about changes that prevent drivers from legally using their cell phones to talk or text while driving. There has been some discussion about the changes to require drivers to slow down and pull over more to avoid emergency vehicles, but mostly people just want to use their phones while driving.
Oregon State Police will be trying to cash in keep us safe by patrolling I-5 tomorrow and ticketing commuters. If you drive on the freeway, either stay off the phone, use a hands free phone, or keep an eye out for the cops.
Texting or talking while driving has been shown to be statistically linked as a cause of accidents. However, if you’re going to bring that into the equation, then even the “hands free” sets that are still allowed by Oregon law should be banned, since they also shown to have the same effects that cause accidents to the same degree. Extrapolating even more, it would be illegal to talk to the driver of a vehicle. I hope you’re not missing the point here: Breaking a drivers concentration is the problem here, regardless of the actual thing causing the distraction.
As always tweet @KristopherIves if you have something to say!
Myself and eveyone I know seemed to have avoided this